The Making Of Apocalypse Now

“They used to call it Apocalypse When,” recalls director Francis Ford Coppola. “It was just being portrayed as this wild, irresponsible picture.”

It’s not hard to see why. Tormented by a production that suffered one disaster after another, Coppola’s Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now looked like it might never see the light of a movie projector.

Wrestling with a tricky subject matter was taxing enough, but Coppola faced numerous problems during production of his magnum opus – including torrential weather storms that destroyed expensive sets, a problem actor in Marlon Brando, and a runaway schedule – not to mention a runaway budget.

It’s a small miracle that Coppola was able to piece together the kind of film that was even viewable, let alone one worthy of an Oscar or two…